Case Study: Using PebblePad to evidence competencies

A Case Study looking at how PebblePad is being used by Julia Wheeler and Social Work students to evidence practice whilst on Placement.

For this Case Study we sat down with Julia Wheeler from
Social Work to discuss how PebblePad
is being used by students to evidence practice whilst on Placement.

In Social Work students are sent out on placement and are
asked to evidence certain skills and competencies. These are checked by
both external mentors from the placements and tutors here at Plymouth
University. Previously, this was carried out using paper and meant student progress
was only seen once the portfolio was submitted. Postal copies were also large
in size and were sometimes lost in the post.

In the case study Julia talks through the
benefits of using PebblePad, lessons learned along the way and her plans for
developing the practice further.

Background

Why are you using PebblePad?

I am using pebblepad to enable students to submit their
practice portfolio electronically and to give access to external markers.

How did you do this previously?

Students submitted
hard copies.

Benefits

What are the benefits of using PebblePad?

Hard
copies were quite large and sometimes were lost in the post, especially when
sending them out to external markers. Markers also had to wait until the deadline to see the students work. With PebblePad we can now go in at anytime and see how students are progressing.

How is your new practice better
than your previous practice?

Ease of access for markers
and students – particularly as students are placed all over the south west
region in practice placements

Lessons Learned

What issues did you encounter
and how were these overcome?

Mostly educating new external
users how to use pebblepad.

If you were to start again,
would you do anything differently?

Improve information
to external users and ensure that all staff at university presented a positive
view of pebblepad to students – those who found IT difficult sometimes did not
‘sell’ the use of pebblepad to students.

What do you dislike about PebblePad
and how could it be made better?

How many clicks it
takes to open evidence attached to the workbooks. This could be managed by redesigning the structure of the workbook going forward.

Future Plans

Do you intend to change or
build on your practice further? If so how?

For the time
being we will continue to use pebblepad in the same way. I’m also waiting to see how the new version (PebblePad 5)
feels to work with.

Feedback

Do you have any advice for
others using PebblePad?

It is important to present a
positive attitude in the use of pebblepad, this then enables others to learn how to use it more effectively!